Vatican insisting on a precise translation of a new Latin text
The French-speaking Catholic world is heading for the same tug-of-war over translating the Roman Missal that their English-speaking cousins fought and lost five ago. As in the case of the English text, the Vatican insists on a precise translation of the new Latin text approved in 2002.
The planned new text, meant to replace the first translation made after the Second Vatican Council, will be used in the French-speaking parts of Europe, Canada, Africa and the Caribbean for the next half-century. The bishops’ first draft was rejected by the Vatican in 2007.
Several francophone bishops conferences, especially in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, have raised objections to the latest text that they find pompous and unnatural, the French daily La Croix reported. The French bishops are less critical, but still have reservations.
But Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, told the French magazine Famille Chrétienne that Pope Francis had recently told him “the new translations of the Missal must absolutely respect the Latin text.”
The latest text introduces the adjective “consubstantial” that English speakers discovered in their new Missal, and brings back the “through my fault” sequence that had been replaced by “Yes, I have truly sinned” in French.
For the chalice, it turns the current word for chalice “coupe” back to the older “calice”, which has become a swear word for exasperated French Canadians. The introduction to the Offertory (“Orate fratres”) has become stilted and hard to recite.
By contrast, a change to the Lord’s Prayer has been well received. The currently used French prayer now says “do not submit us to temptation”, which theologians say implies that God tempts people to sin. The new translation, which France’s Protestant churches also support, says “do not let us enter into temptation”.
Interview by Marco Ferraresi 25-05-2016 (English translation by freetranslation.com) This translation uses Italian syntax in English, similar to our new and glorious English translation of the Mass. :)
To speak of the family has never been so complicated. Even within the Church. Does the problem first of all the object of the speech: what is really family? And how to pretend that there is no confusion in civil society, if also in the Church's fundamental truths are darkened about marriage? The dispute on the cap. VIII of the Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of Pope Francis and the recent Italian law on civil unions arouse astonishment.
We talk with the card. Carlo Caffarra, emeritus Archbishop of Bologna. Caffarra was founder and Dean of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the family. Already a participant as an expert to the Synod of Bishops on the family of 1980, is appointed by the Pope to the Synods of 2014 and 2015. Answers the questions with the simplicity and the sincerity of the men of his land: "that fetid fertile land between the great river and the great road", says proudly quoting Guareschi.
Your Eminence what is the family?
It is the company that originated from marriage indissoluble bond between a man and a woman, which has the purpose of uniting the spouses and transmit human life.
From a civil union, according to the law Cirinnà was born a family?
No. The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, by signing this law has subscribed to a redefinition of marriage. But a regulatory measure does not change the reality of things. We must say it: the Mayors (especially, of course, those Catholics) must make objection of conscience. Celebrating a civil union would in fact jointly responsible for an act gravely illicit on the moral plane.
Because this identity crisis of the family in the West?
I often wonder that, but I do not have an exhaustive response. However, a contributory cause is a process of "debiologizzazione", for which no longer believes that the body has a language (and therefore a significance objective). This meaning is thus determined by the freedom of the person. Is broken,in Western consciousness, the bond between the bios and logos.
In a perspective of faith, there are also the causes of the supernatural?
In 1981 I was founded by the will of Saint John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the family. The Foundation was scheduled for 13 May, date of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima. The Pope in that day suffered the attack, from which he emerged miraculously except for grace - to say the same Pontiff - the Madonna. After the first years of life of the Institute, I wrote to Sister Lucy, the Seer of Fatima, asking for prayers for the work, and adding that not expected response. A response but came anyway.
What answered?
Sister Lucy wrote - and, I emphasize, we are in the early eighties - that there would have been a time of one of the "final clash between the Lord and Satan. And the battle field would be constituted by marriage and the family. He added that those who have fought for marriage and the family would be persecuted. But also that they should not fear, because Our Lady has already crushed the head of the serpent hellish.
Prophetic words: this is what is happening?
We live in a situation unpublished. Never happened that you redefine marriage. It is Satan that challenge God, as saying: "You see? You submit your creation. But I will I show that constitute a creating alternative. And you will see that the men will say: it is better this way". The entire span of creation is founded, according to the Scripture, on two columns: marriage and human work. It is now our theme the second, also subject to a "crisis definitoria"; for what here relates, the marriage has been institutionally destroyed.
The Church can respond to this challenge?
Must respond, for reasons i would say structural. The Church is concerned with the marriage because the Lord has raised to a sacrament. Christ himself unites the spouses. It should be remembered, is not a metaphor: according to the words of Saint Paul in marriage the constraint between the spouses engages in spousal bond between Christ and the Church, and vice versa. The indissolubility is not first and foremost a moral question ("the spouses must not separate"), but the ontological: the sacrament performs a transformation in the spouses. So that Scripture says, are no longer two but one. This is clearly stated in Amoris Laetitia (par. 71-75). The sacrament, then, instils in spouses conjugal charity. And this fluent Chapters IV and V of the Exhortation. Furthermore, the sacrament constitutes the spouses in a state of public life in the Church and in society. As every state of life in the Church even Marital Status has a mission: the gift of life, which continues in the education of their children. Here the chapter VII of Amoris Laetitia fills even, in my opinion, a shortcoming in the debate of the bishops at the Synod.
In practice, what should the Church do?
Only one thing: to communicate the Gospel of marriage. I said "communicate", because it is not only a linguistic event. The communication of the Gospel means to heal man and woman by their inability to love and put them in the great mystery of Christ and the Church. This communication takes place through the preaching and catechesis; and through the Sacraments. There are people who, after a catechesis on the Sacrament of the matrimony. They are telling me: because nobody i have never spoken of these wonderful reality? Young people especially should be at the center of our concerns. The issue of education in this field is "the" decisive question. The Pope speaks widely in para. 205-211.
Your Eminence, what can we say about the issue of access to the sacraments of the divorced and remarried? The Holy Father (Francis) is in Chapter VIII, which were offered but opposite readings.
First of all, I would like to emphasize that the Pope himself in para. 307 says that before dealing with the failed marriages, we must concern ourselves with those to be built. And, I would add, the problem of his question remains quantitatively limited. Certainly, the doctrinal is anything but ignored. In this regard, I reply from four premises.
1) marriage was indissoluble. As I said before that a moral obligation, the indissolubility is an ontological datum. Regret to note that not all the Synod Fathers had very clear this ontological foundation.
2) Conjugal fidelity is not an ideal to be reached. The strength to be faithful is given in the sacrament (vi imagine her husband who says to his wife: "You faithful is an ideal that I try to reach, but I still can not"?). Too many times you use in Amoris Laetitia the word "ideal", it is necessary to focus on the point.
3) marriage is not a private matter, available by the spouses. It is a public reality for the good of the Church and of society.
4) The cap. VIII, objectively, it is not clear. How else can you explain the "conflict of interpretations accesosi" even among bishops? When this happens, it is necessary to check whether there are other texts of the Magisterium clearer, bearing in mind a principle: in matters of doctrine of faith and morals the magisterium can not contradict one another. You should not confuse contradiction and development. If I say S is P and then say S is not P, is not that has deepened the first. I contradicted.
Amoris Laetitia, therefore, teaches or not that there is a space for access to the Sacraments for the divorced and remarried?
No. If you pay in a state of life that objectively contradict the sacrament of the Eucharist, cannot access it. As taught in the earlier Magisterium, can instead access those who, not being able to meet the requirement of the separation (e.g. due to the education of the children born from the new report), live in continence. This point is touched by the Pope in a note (n. 351). Now if the pope had wanted to change the previous Magisterium, that it is very clear, would have had the duty and the duty serious, to say so clearly and expressly. You can not with a note and of uncertain content, changing the secular discipline of the Church. I am applying an interpretative principle that in theology has always been admitted. The Magisterium uncertain interprets in continuity with the previous one.
Therefore, no news?
The novelty, in addition to the possibility given by the Holy Father to plead, prudent judgment of bishops to some canonical norms, is especially in caring for these brothers and sisters who are divorced and remarried, trying to imitate our Savior in the mode with which he met the people most in need of "Doctor" . Chapter VIII ("accompany, discern, integrate"), in my modest opinion, is the guide of this "care". We must not fall into the deception mass media to reduce everything to "Eucharist yes-Eucharist no".
EXTRAORDINARY FORM HIGH MASS CHANGING
PARTS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI
INTROIT
Ps. 80:17 He fed them with the finest wheat, alleluia! and filled them
with honey from the rock, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia! Ps. 80:2. Sing joyfully
to God, our helper, sing aloud to the God of Jacob. V. Glory be . . .
COLLECT - O God, we possess a lasting memorial of Your Passion in this
wondrous Sacrament. Grant that we may so venerate the mysteries of Your Body
and Blood that we may always feel within ourselves the effects of Your
redemption; who lives and rules with God the Father in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God forever and ever.
EPISTLE
I Cor. 11:23-29
Brethren: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, And
giving thanks, broke and said: "Take ye and eat: This is my body, which
shall be delivered for you. This do for the commemoration of me." In like
manner also the chalice, after he had supped, saying: "This chalice is the
new testament in my blood. This do ye, as often as you shall drink, for the
commemoration of me. For as often as you shall eat this bread and drink the
chalice, you shall shew the death of the Lord, until he come." Therefore,
whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord. But let a man prove
himself: and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the chalice. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment to himself.
GRADUAL
The eyes of all look hopefully to You, O Lord, and You give them food in due
season. V. You open Your hand and fill every living creature with blessing.
Alleluia, alleluia! V. John 6:56-57 My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed. He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in
him, alleluia!
SEQUENCE
Lo! the angel’s food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children’s bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.
You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav’nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
GOSPEL
John 6:56-59
At that time, Jesus said to the crowds of the Jews: "For my flesh is meat
indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my
blood abideth in me: and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me and I live
by the Father: so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is
the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth this bread shall live for ever."
OFFERTORY
Lev. 21:6
The priests of the Lord offer incense and loaves to God; therefore they shall
be sacred to their God and shall not profane His name, alleluia!
SECRET (PRAYER OVER THE OFFERINGS)
O Lord, graciously bestow upon Your Church the gifts of unity and peace, which
are symbolized in this Sacrifice we offer You. Through our Lord . . .
PREFACE (Preface
of the Nativity) - It is truly meet and just, right and for our
salvation, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto
Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God, for through the Mystery of
the Word made flesh, the new light of Thy glory hath shone upon the eyes of our
mind, so that while we acknowledge God in visible form, we may through Him be
drawn to the love of things invisible. And therefore with Angels and
Archangels, with Throne and Dominations, and with all the hosts of the heavenly
army, we sing the hymn of Thy glory, evermore saying:
COMMUNION ANTIPHON
I Cor. 11:26-27
As often as you shall eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death
of the Lord, until He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks the
cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord,
alleluia!
POST COMMUNION - O Lord, grant that we may
enjoy the eternal presence of Your divinity, which is foreshadowed by our
earthly reception of Your Precious Body and Blood; who lives and rules with God
the Father . . .
Following the Post
Communion Prayer, the Final Blessing and Last Gospel are omitted; the Eucharist
will be placed in the monstrance for the in-church Corpus Christi Procession
(similar to Holy Thursdays). All Kneel. After the procession, the Most Blessed
Sacrament will remain on the altar for solemn adoration. Adoration will conclude
at 4:30 PM with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. After adoring our
Lord, please depart the church in sacred silence. Thank you.
I wonder how my new parishioners in Richmond Hill would feel about purchasing this chasuble for me and my first Mass with them the weekend of June 25/26? Tradition on steroids?
Who would like to go start a "go fund me" account?
Of all the Marian apparitions throughout the ages, I think Our Lady's messages at Fatima are the most powerful among believing Catholics. I know that this is true of my generation of Catholics. Apparitions played a powerful role in our childhood catechesis until these were denigrated in the late 1960's and 70's. But Fatima and other apparitions have returned to the Church's lexicon with a vengeance since the 1980's and today. Think of Medjugorie and Conyers (both a bit disputed).
But Fatima is the apparition with keeps on giving because of its third secret which wasn't completely (or was it) revealed until the early 1990's to the disappointment and incredulity of many at the time. No one believed what was said about this third message by then Cardinal Ratzinger--there was something contrived about it as he claimed its apocalyptic aspect referred to Pope Saint John Paul's assassination attempt in 1981. It sounded a bit self serving.
Let's fast forward to the current papacy. As God's grace would have it for me, I was on sabbatical in Rome in the fall of 2013. Pope Francis celebrated a huge outdoor Mass at which I was able to distribute Holy Communion, where the actual statue of Our Lady of Fatima was present and Pope Francis consecrated or reconsecrated the entire world to our Lady under this title. The night before I attended an outdoor devotion where her statue was processed throughout Saint Peter's Square to the faithful waving white handkerchiefs. It was wonderful.
And now fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. This story from Catholic News Service is quite interesting to say the least:
Vatican tries to snuff out Fatima conspiracy theories
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service May 28, 2016
VATICAN CITY — When then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger met the press in 2000 for the formal release of the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, he said he knew many people would be disappointed.
Almost 16 years later, at the beginning of a yearlong preparation for the 100th anniversary of the apparition of our Lady of Fatima in 2017, now-retired Pope Benedict XVI is still dealing with people not convinced the secret is really out.
An online journal called OnePeterFive published an article May 15 claiming that shortly after then-Cardinal Ratzinger released the secret and his commentary, affirming that it was the complete text, he told a German priest that, in fact, it was not.
“There is more than what we published,” the article claimed the cardinal told Father Ingo Dollinger. The article went further: “He also told Dollinger that the published part of the secret is authentic and that the unpublished part of the secret speaks about ‘a bad council and a bad Mass’ that was to come in the near future.”
A statement released May 21 by the Vatican press office said Pope Benedict “declares ‘never to have spoken with Professor Dollinger about Fatima,’ clearly affirming that the remarks attributed to Professor Dollinger on the matter ‘are pure inventions, absolutely untrue,’ and he confirms decisively that ‘the publication of the Third Secret of Fatima is complete.’”
The Vatican’s publication of “The Message of Fatima” in 2000 included a photocopy of the text handwritten in 1944 by Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last survivor of the three children who saw Mary at Fatima in 1917.
Speculation naturally swirls around secrets, and when a secret is held for decades, the assumptions gain ground and followers.
The common message of Marian apparitions throughout the centuries has been: pray and convert. But a message read only by a few popes and their closest aides? There had to be something more to it to justify keeping it so secret, many people thought.
When Ratzinger presented the text in the Vatican press office June 26, 2000, he told reporters that the choice of St. John XXIII and Blessed Paul VI to withhold publication and St. John Paul II’s decision to delay it was not a “dogmatic decision but one of prudence.”
But, he said, “looking back, I would certainly say that we have paid a price” for the delay, which allowed the spread of apocalyptic theories about its contents.
Meeting the press that day, the first words out of his mouth were: “One who carefully reads the text of the so-called third secret of Fatima will probably be disappointed or surprised after all the speculation there has been.”
The text, he said, uses “symbolic language” to describe “the church of the martyrs of the century now past,” particularly the victims of two world wars, Nazism and Communism.
But what was most difficult for many to believe after the secret spent more than 40 years in a Vatican vault was what the text did not contain.
“No great mystery is revealed,” Ratzinger said. “The veil of the future is not torn.”
In a 1996 interview with Portugal’s main Catholic radio station, the cardinal — who already had read the secret — tried the reasonable, tradition-based approach to pointing out what was and was not in the message.
“The Virgin does not engage in sensationalism; she does not create fear,” he said. “She does not present apocalyptic visions, but guides people to her Son.”
Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI five years after the text was published. If there was more to the secret, he had eight years of complete freedom as supreme pontiff to share what supposedly was withheld.
Marianist Father Johann Roten, a former student of then-Father Joseph Ratzinger who for years headed the Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, said “no doubt there is truth” in what many Fatima devotees see as “the moral decline in the church.”
“The difficulty is in the method” many of them choose to convince others of the need for conversion and prayer, Roten said in an email response to questions.
“The method tends to be magico-ritualistic, based on the conviction that a particular act,” such as the consecration of Russia performed in a particular way, “will solve all problems,” he said.
“Apparitions always stress the message of Christ,” Roten said. Mary urges “prayer, conversion and practical manifestations of one’s faith.”
“Warnings are part of the message, not always, but especially in times of imminent social catastrophe,” including Fatima before the Russian Revolution, he said.
“Unfortunately, these general messages are frequently overlooked. Instead the attention is given to sensationalism — a rosary turning golden — or apocalypticism — doomsday warnings — which never represent the essential part and reasons of such events,” Roten said.
Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Fatima in 2010, Pope Benedict repeated what he had said 10 years earlier: The text was open to interpretation, but the heart of the Fatima message was a call “to ongoing conversion, penance, prayer and the three theological virtues: faith, hope and charity.”
Yes, he said, the church constantly is under attack — “attacks from within and without — yet the forces of good are also ever present and, in the end, the Lord is more powerful than evil and Our Lady is for us the visible, motherly guarantee of God’s goodness, which is always the last word in history.”
For me the Mass is the Mass in whatever form. While I find the Eastern Rite Masses a bit too mystical for me, I see it as I would our Latin Rite forms. For me there is no difference in the effects of a Mass celebrated facing or away from the congregation; in Latin or the vernacular; in the OF or EF forms and now in the Divine Worship, the Missal Form. The Eastern Rite Masses accomplish the very same things as the Western Rite forms.
I see the Divine Worship, the Missal as the template for the reform of the OF Mass which needs some help along the lines of this new Missal approved by Pope Francis.
I love the Latin especially when all in attendance love it or at least appreciate it.
I love the vernacular because of the issues of comprehension and that the vernacular is the language I use when I pray my personal prayers and devotions. It facilitates my participation in the graces that God offers during Mass.
When I celebrate the EF Mass, I feel connected to my past and the Church's long and wonderful history of salvation.
I understand most of the revisions of this Mass as experienced today in the OF Mass and I am in complete agreement with the new and glorious revised English translation of the Mass which recovers the spirituality of the Mass as it was revised in Latin after Vatican II.
I prefer the OF Mass to be celebrated ad orientem for the Liturgy of the Eucharist as Cardinal Robert Sarah, Pope Francis' pick for the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship has more than strongly encouraged in the past and quite recently. At St. Joseph Church, we celebrate Mass this way each Sunday at our 12:10 PM Mass and use the full length of the altar railing to distribute Holy Communion to kneeling communicants. These two reforms of the OF Mass would go a long way in recovering a sense of the sacred and reverence that we have lost in the last 50 years of useless experimentation.
From my perspective as a priest, I am less distracted in prayer by what is going on in the congregation when I am praying the Mass with the congregation. I cannot tell you how many times in my 36 years as priest that as I am praying the Eucharistic Prayer and even during the words of consecration, I see people getting up, going to the restroom or leaving for whatever reason or returning to their pew.
When I pray ad orientem all these distractions are removed from me and any hostility I have towards those who are clueless about Mass etiquette and reverence!
I prefer Vatican II's theological underpinnings of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As with the EF Mass it is both Sacrifice and Eucharistic banquet. But our Lord is present to us throughout the Mass in other ways. He is present in the clergy and laity who gather for Mass. He is present in His Word especially the Gospel which contains His Words. He is present in the person of the priest who acts in Persona Christi and Head of the Church. Finally He is present in a specific and transubstantial way in the Sacred Species of Mass. His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. His one Sacrifice, now a part of eternity, is completely present in an unbloody way, a glorified way. And the Banquet of the Eucharist is a sign that we are in full communion with the Church on earth (Militant); the Church in Purgatory (Suffering) and the Church in Heaven (Triumphant).
It doesn't get any better than this in the various forms of the Mass in the West and the East!
By Father Dwight Longenecker Crux Contributor May 27, 2016
Earlier this month, Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, who serves as an English-language aide to the Vatican Press Office, launched a fierce attack on radical traditionalists in the Catholic blogosphere.
As reported by the Catholic News Service, Rosica stated, “Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!” (My comment: Does Fr. Rosica read the National Chismatic Reporter, NCR or the venom directed at Vox Clara and Pope Benedict by Praytell posts and commenters??? The NCR had some of the most horrible comments of any chismatic publication!)
“The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around,” Rosica said.
He went further with the withering remark, “Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners!..in reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people.” (I wish Fr. Rosica wouldn't mince his words and would say what he really thinks; enough of this political correctness!)
Is Rosica correct, or is the director of Salt and Light media throwing salt in open wounds and generating more heat than light?
To understand his comments, we should remember that there’s some history here. In February 2015 Fr Rosica’s lawyer threatened to sue Canadian blogger David Domet. Domet blogs at Vox Cantoris (You know how we Canadians are! Vox comments here sometimes! YIKES!) and is a member of a clan of traditionalist bloggers who trade in sensational accusations about the Catholic Church, of which they claim to be faithful defenders.
Michael Voris’ Church Militant website jumped to Domet’s defense, a major tempest in a teapot blew up, and Rosica’s lawyer backed off. (We Canadians have a tendency not to understand freedom of the press as we Americans and we Italians do.)
The traditionalists continued their campaign against Rosica when he allowed a gay activist to attend a Vatican conference, downplayed the fact of gay activists invited to Pope Francis’ White House reception, and sidelined the importance of the pope’s meeting with Kentucky county clerk and conscientious objector Kim Davis.
In other words, Rosica is firmly in the crosshairs of the radical traditionalists.
Are Rosica’s criticisms fair, or is he just licking his wounds and nursing a grudge against sensible, holy and well-meaning Catholic conservatives? Perhaps it is worth letting these folks speak for themselves.
A quick click through David Domet’s Vox Cantoris blog reveals a few common themes. The Holy Father is consistently disrespected, referring to him as “Jorge Bergoglio.” This is common usage across radical traditionalist websites and blogs. (This is disrepectful and should be called the mortal sin it is, breaking the 4th Commandment! Thanks Fr. Longenecker for pointing this out!)
Does this qualify as a “cesspool of venom and vitriol”? Maybe not. But dig a bit deeper into radical traditionalist sites such as Michael Matt’s The Remnant, Steve Skojec’s 1Peter5, or Anne Barnhardt’s blog, and Rosica’s words will not seem like an exaggeration.
Anne Barnhardt, refers to Pope Francis as a “diabolical narcissist,” and in an interview at Creative Minority Report calls the pope a “fag hag.” (One wonders if she is a Chick Publication plant!)
The anonymous Mundabor, like most of the radical blogs, calls for Amoris Laetitia to be withdrawn and ponders how a heretical pope might be deposed, while Barnhardt, writing here at The Remnant,writes an incendiary and ludicrous article calling for “all bishops who are true Catholics” to rise up and depose Jorge Bergoglio.
Meanwhile, the shadowy TradCatKnight deals not only in conspiracy theories about the apostasy of “Pope Bergoglio,” but also warns of chem trails, the nefarious Jews, global government conspiracies, the skull and bones club and various other ominously apocalyptic stories.
Novus Ordo Watch chronicles the diabolical machinations of the post-Vatican II church, the invalid resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, church conspiracies and lies about Fatima and the widespread apostasy in the highest levels of the Vatican.
Robert Sungenis, another online character who is very interested in the apocalyptic messages from Fatima, has been accused of being anti Semitic. Sungenis is most well known for his odd geocentrist views.
Is the radical traditionalist blogosphere not only “a cesspool,” but an asylum for Catholic crazies? If readers care that much, I suggest they browse through the named websites and draw their own conclusions.
Rosica may well be right that these are “disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs.” The question is, does it matter?
Yes, because there are a large number of Catholics who are lost sheep. It doesn’t take a radical traditionalist to admit that Catholic catechesis over the last fifty years has been weak and often non-existent.
In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, too much preaching and catechesis focused only on peace and justice issues, or presented a subjective and sentimental understanding of the Catholic faith. Pastors and catechists are not the only ones at fault. The Catholic faithful themselves have too often preferred a fuzzy, feel-good message. (What I call coloring book Catholics which describes these radical so-called traditionalists, as true traditionalists respect the papacy and the sitting pope, no matter his peccadilloes.)
Indifference, and indifferentism, have produced a notoriously lax and ineffectual form of American Catholicism.
Catholics who are looking for a faith with rigor, discipline and a tough line are invariably drawn to the traditionalist message. It is possible to find a strong, joyful traditional Catholic witness that combines clarity and charity, and those who relish Catholicism with grit should search out such communities. (Yes, my blog!)
Unfortunately, such teachers and parishes are hard to find, and too often the “Church of the Internet” takes over. Self-appointed online teachers fill the vacuum, and a poisonous, self-righteous extremism takes the place of true, simple, and humble piety.
What can be done? Alas, not much.
Observations such as Rosica’s are reminiscent of Jesus’ own words, calling the Scribes and Pharisees “whitewashed sepulchers” and “a brood of vipers.” and look what that got him! The venomous and vitriolic bloggers will most assuredly not accept criticism, but lash back with a fuller fury and loftier righteousness.
Impervious to both gentle reproof and harsh attack, they will, like cornered animals, snarl and bite back.
Therefore, one must shrug, get on with the difficult calling of following Christ the Lord, and remember Rosica’s final comment: “We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!”
Yes, I agree with Fr. Longenecker's assertions. However, progressives do the same thing but with finesse, meaning their motives aren't as clear as traditionalists who are more honest. Both break the 4th Commandment, but the progressives are more stealthy and sophisticated, more academic!
Frequent commeter on my blog, Joseph Johnson has a brother Rodger Johnson who is an artist. He has made the new altar and tabernacle for the diocese's newest Church, St. Anthony of Padua in Ray City, Georgia. The video tells it all, southern accent and inculturation included!
Thanks to Joseph Johnson, brother of Rodger Johnson for alerting me to this video:
2015-2016 Lumen Christi Award Recipient
A Miracle in the South
By: Meinrad Scherer-Emunds, Catholic Extension Society
October 5, 2015
It was close to 100 degrees on a Saturday afternoon in August when
Father Fredy Angel gave visitors a tour at the construction site of the
impressive new church his parish is building outside of Ray City,
Georgia. Wearing a white hard hat with blue lettering coming down its
front spelling “FR ANGEL”—the “A” topped by a little halo—the
Colombian-born missionary priest was accompanied by Juan Salazar, a
parishioner who has been leading a crew of volunteer workers in the
construction of St. Anthony of Padua Church.
The previous weekend the volunteers had finished their work on the
exterior walls. The next step was to build the trusses for putting up
the roof. The bell tower, its shell already assembled, sat on the ground
in front of the church, waiting for that roof so it could be hoisted on
top.
During
his tour Father Angel stopped at the concrete steps where the altar
will be constructed. A few months earlier, he explained, the parish
community had gathered at this very spot. “I asked them to bring a
religious article that [had special meaning] in their lives.” It could
be a rosary, a saint’s statue, a crucifix, a medal or a book—anything
that could be a symbol of their faith.
Parishioners brought their religious articles to a plastic-lined hole
in the ground. Father Angel opened the ceremony with prayer and placed a
broken statue of Mary into the hole. Next were old chalices, patens,
sacramentaries and missals. Then, Father Angel said, he placed one of
his albs and a stole into the hole, “representing not just my
priesthood, but that of all the priests who have worked here in the
parish, and for the future priests, too.”
Finally, it was the parishioners’ turn to plant their own “seeds of
faith.” At the very end, Sharon Walter, a former parishioner who had
traveled from Atlanta, placed a copy of the Shroud of Turin on top.
Believed by many to be the burial shroud of Jesus, it was a powerful
reminder to the parishioners that they are the body of Christ, and that
if their community is to grow, they too have to be part of the death and
resurrection of Christ.
The construction of St. Anthony of Padua Church, scheduled to be
dedicated in early 2016, is a dream-come-true for Catholics in this area
of southern Georgia near the city of Valdosta.
Retired Bishop Kevin Boland of the Diocese of Savannah, in which
Father Angel works, said, “What you see happening in Lakeland and in
Adel, in Nashville and in Ray City, in all of that part of south
Georgia, that’s kind of a miracle in the South. The reason why the
Church there is able to accomplish this—with the help of Catholic
Extension and others—is the vibrancy of the faith of the Catholic
people.” For
the past eight years Father Angel has been the pastor of St. Anthony of
Padua’s predecessor parish—Queen of Peace in Lakeland and its
missions—which covers a large geographical area spanning initially four
and today three counties. In that role he has been the energetic,
tireless and enthusiastic shepherd, teacher, motivator and guiding force
behind what one of his parishioners called a “revival” among Catholics
there.
“In the Protestant Churches here, they talk about revival week,” said
parishioner Chris Chammoun. “But with us it’s been a revival of eight
years. We’ve been reviving our spirit and bringing in new people who are
excited about coming to Church.”
Chammoun added, “Since Father Fredy has been leading us on this new
journey, we’ve seen a lot of growth. Sunday Mass here is overflowing.
People have to sit outside, which can be rough in the 100-degree
weather. But people still do it and sweat because they want to be here
for Mass.”
In the process of that revival, the pastor has also bound a diverse
community of African American, white, Latino and Asian American
Catholics closer together; has planted, grown and nurtured a deeper
faith among his parishioners; has motivated and educated children, youth
and adults; has earned the respect of the area’s larger, non-Catholic
community; and now leads the parish in the building of their new church.
Undertaking such an ambitious construction project has instilled pride
and great expectations in its members and is already resulting in a more
prominent and visible presence of Catholicism in an area where
Catholics are only a small minority.
Catholic Extension is proud to present Father Angel with its
2015–2016 Lumen Christi Award. “Lumen Christi” is Latin for “Light of
Christ.” The award honors an individual or group who demonstrates how
the power of faith can transform lives and communities. Recipients are
honored not only for the light and hope they bring to forgotten corners
of the country, but for inspiring others to be “Lights of Christ” as
well.
Catholic Extension President Father Jack Wall said, “We are honoring
Father Fredy Angel for the inspiration he gives not only to the growing
Catholic population in southern Georgia, but to all American Catholics.
Father Fredy embodies the service and courage of America’s missionary
priests who are playing a critical role in building up the fabric of our
Church and of this nation.”
Bishop Gregory Hartmayer of the Diocese of Savannah, who nominated
Father Angel for the award, said that from the first time he met him in
2011, “Father Fredy impressed me with his genuineness, his simplicity,
his enthusiasm, his joy. He seemed to be a man who was really in love
with what he was doing.” The Franciscan bishop added, “Father Fredy was
named properly in having been given the family name ‘Angel,’ because he
is an ‘angel,’ a messenger of God to the people he serves. He brings
them hope, joy and the presence of Christ in the sacraments, so he is
truly a light of Christ.”
Eight years ago, when Father Angel became the parish’s pastor, Lauren
Salazar—Juan and his wife Lourdes’ daughter—was only 8 years old. But
looking back, she choked up as she remembered,
“When Father Fredy came
here, you knew things were going to change. We were so small, and not
many people came to Church. But things have changed for the better.” She
said, “Father Fredy has that aspiration to make us grow, to make our
religion stronger and make it help people.”
Salazar, just like her brother, Manuel, has been an altar server for
many years. She said, “Being Catholic is the best thing. It’s something
my parents taught me, but we have that choice to keep believing or not. I
like being Catholic. I’ll always be Catholic.”
As is common in this part of southern Georgia, Salazar often gets put
on the spot by her peers for being Catholic. “In high school when I
tell others that I’m Catholic, they go ‘Whoa. You’re Catholic?’” She
said, with Catholics being a small minority, people don’t have much
exposure to or understanding of Catholicism. “They say, ‘Oh, they
worship statues,’ so it’s strange to them.” Father Angel’s catechesis
and homilies have helped her answer those challenges and questions from
her classmates.
The parish youth group she tries to keep going has been hampered by
being “so scattered,” with teens living far from each other, and also by
the lack of suitable space for youth activities. “With the new church,”
Salazar said, “I’d like us to have more regular activities and talk
about the faith. Hopefully, with the central location and new
facilities, we can bring more people to the youth group.”
Another
teen, Natalie Rojas, said she too is looking forward to having more
space for youth activities. As an avid soccer player, she particularly
likes that two soccer fields will be built next to the new church and
that the parish is planning to hold tournaments there.
Within the 90 counties of the Diocese of Savannah, Catholics are
fewer than 3 percent of the population, and in rural areas like St.
Anthony of Padua’s Berrien, Lanier, and Cook Counties the percentage is
even lower.
But over the past two decades, southern Georgia has seen a
considerable influx of Latino immigrants, most of whom work in the
area’s cotton, pecan and peanut fields or the poultry industry.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the percentage of Hispanics in the
parish’s three counties has risen from 1.7 percent in 1990 to 5.3
percent in 2011. That increase has also led to growth among the Catholic
population.
In 2007, when Father Angel arrived as pastor of Queen of Peace in
Lakeland, the parish had three missions: St. Margaret Mary in Adel, St.
Mary in Nashville, and San José, a Spanish-language mission in Twin
Lakes. Constantly driving between those four locations for Masses and
pastoral work, he put an average of 30,000 miles per year on his car.
All of the communities had been struggling and were in poor repair.
The rectory was run down and infested with mildew, and the church
buildings, Father Angel remembered, “weren’t really spaces to worship
the Lord.”
But rather than despair, Father Angel got to work. “Father Fredy is a
cleaner,” noted Bishop Hartmayer. “Everything has to be immaculate. His
house is clean, his rectory and his office are clean, his churches are
clean because that’s the way he needs it, and so he cleans and cleans,
and he gets his people to do the same. When they see him sweeping and
scrubbing floors and wiping down pews, they join him because he does it
first.”
At the verge of burnout, in 2009 he wrote a letter to Bishop Boland.
“I got to a point where even the celebration of the Eucharist, became
empty. It made me sad and frustrated.” He knew it wasn’t serving his
parish either. “I told my bishop that I was getting tired and losing my
vocation. We need to do something to unify the churches.”
The diocese responded by reassigning San José Mission to a parish in
Valdosta, and Father Angel began to work with his parishioners toward
consolidating, rebuilding and reviving the remaining three sites into a
combined new and stronger Catholic faith community.
Mary Ann Woody was one of the parishioners who initially had a hard
time accepting the closing of St. Mary’s. “The church I grew up in was
part of a very small community. To me, rural means being close like a
family—schools are small, the town is small, and the church is small,
but there’s love. It’s taken a lot of praying,” she acknowledged, “but
we’re getting there. Father Fredy has been very strong in helping us get
through those transitions.”
Since February 2014, when St. Margaret Mary Mission in Adel closed,
the parish has been celebrating Mass at two locations—on Sundays at the
“mother church” in Lakeland and on Saturdays at the United Methodist
Church in Ray City, whose congregation generously provides its worship
space free of charge.
Thanks to Father Angel’s leadership, eventually parishioners got
excited about building a new larger church. What got the ball rolling
was one parishioner’s generous donation of 16 acres of land at a central
location near Ray City that would be no more than 20 miles from any of
the four main towns.
Retired General John Folkerts said he once “mentioned to Father
Fredy, almost in passing, ‘Father, if needed, I can probably provide the
land.’ I don’t think he forgot that. Then the bishop came,” he added
with a laugh, “and he was talking about it, too. You don’t say no to
that.”
Folkerts, who chairs the parish’s building committee, said, “There’s
been a role for everyone. For those who can contribute money, there is a
role, and for those who can provide labor, there is a role. We have
been blessed to have a contractor who made it possible to build our
church in this way with the volunteer labor.”
Although the work of Juan Salazar’s team of volunteer workers has
allowed the parish to save money on the construction, financing it is
still a daunting challenge. “We get worried sometimes about raising the
money,” Chris Chammoun said, “but Father Fredy makes us feel that we can
reach our goal. He’s the glass-half-full kind of person.”
Father
Angel clearly is a gifted teacher, and his parishioners look forward to
the dialogue homilies he engages them in while moving up and down the
center aisle. “Father Fredy is a teaching priest,” said Gary Amiot.
“I’ve heard these same readings, it seems like for 100 years, but he
brings them to life.” Amiot even credits Father Angel with bringing his
brother back to the Church. While they went fishing, Amiot kept telling
his brother things he’d learned from the homilies. That made his brother
come check things out for himself, and now the two of them drive the 20
miles to Church together. “He would say, ‘Father Fredy was directly
talking to me.’ I have felt the same thing, and many others have, too.”
Steven Mancuso, the parish’s director of religious education, said,
“I wouldn’t be in formation for the permanent diaconate if it wasn’t for
Father Angel.” He added that “from the first time we walked in here, it
was impressive, because a lot of the South is very divided. For
example, you have white Baptist churches and you have black Baptist
churches. But we walked in here, and it was pretty well mixed. You had
African American Catholics in here, white Catholics, Latinos, and
Asians.”
Many parishioners cite the bilingual Masses and potlucks on the first
weekend of each month as key in building bridges between the English-
and Spanish-speaking parishioners. The monthly events are important to
Father Angel, who works hard to “make it nice” and to encourage his
parish. “I’ve told the Anglos, ‘You don’t have to speak Spanish, just
say hola.’ When we are in the supermarket, we need to recognize each
other. And I’ve told the same to the Spanish-speaking community, ‘You
can say hello. That’s all the English you need to know.’”
Parishioner Ana Beltrán said, “Here in southern Georgia, a lot of
people have that division: The Latinos hang out more with the Latinos,
and the Anglos with the Anglos, and the African Americans with the
African Americans, but once we come through that church door, we are
one, we are family, just one Catholic community.”
Longtime parishioner Michael McCrae said he has been coming to Queen
of Peace Church since he was 2 or 3 years old. “When we first started in
1941, the parish was all black except for one family, the Johnsons, but
over the last few decades that has changed. Now everybody enjoys
everybody, even though we have different people and different cultures.”
He added, “When he preach on Sunday morning, y’all might have heard an
‘Amen’ in there, which in a Catholic Church in this area, you don’t
hear.” That’s his wife, he said. “She’s not Catholic, but she still
likes it in this Catholic church.”
Perhaps Juan Salazar’s wife, Lourdes, summed up best why Father Angel
is this year’s Lumen Christi Award recipient: “Father Fredy is a person
filled with God, and everyone who listens to him is filled with joy. He
has united our community.
“God has sent him to us,” Salazar added, “I want to thank him not
just for the construction of the new church, but also for the
construction of our hearts, which little by little has led to changes in
our lives. Father Fredy was the one who planted the mustard seed. I
know this seed will bear many fruits, and we are those fruits, all of us
who have been coming here.”
Vatican liturgy chief urges priests to celebrate Mass facing east
ENJOY!
Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in Haiti in 2010 (CNS)
Cardinal Robert Sarah made the comments in an exclusive interview with Famille Chrétienne
The Vatican’s liturgy chief has called on priests to celebrate Mass facing east.
In an interview with the French Catholic magazine Famille Chrétienne, Cardinal Robert Sarah said that the Second Vatican Council did not require priests to celebrate Mass facing the people.
This way of celebrating Mass, he said, was “a possibility, but not an obligation”.
Readers and listeners should face each other during the Liturgy of the Word, he said.
“But as soon as we reach the moment when one addresses God – from the Offertory onwards – it is essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east. This corresponds exactly to what the Council Fathers wanted.”
Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, rejected the argument that priests celebrating Mass facing east are turning their backs on the faithful “or against them”.
Rather, he said, all are “turned in the same direction: towards the Lord who comes”.
“It is legitimate and complies with the letter and spirit of the Council,” he said. “As prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, I wish to recall that the celebration versus orientem is authorised by the rubrics, which specify the times when the celebrant must turn to the people. It is therefore not necessary to have special permission to celebrate facing the Lord.”
Cardinal Sarah’s remarks echo an article he wrote a year ago for L’Osservatore Romano, in which he said it was “altogether appropriate, during the penitential rite, the singing of the Gloria, the orations and the Eucharistic prayer, that everyone, priest and faithful, turn together toward the East, so as to express their intention to participate in the work of worship and redemption accomplished by Christ.”
The cardinal added in the article that Mass facing east could be “implemented in cathedrals, where the liturgical life must be exemplary”.
What does the expression ex opere operato mean? Doesn't it have something to do with the sacraments?
Answer
Ex opere operato
is a Latin expression meaning "by the work worked." It refers to the
fact that the sacraments confer grace when the sign is validly effected
-- not as the result of activity on the part of the recipient but by the
power and promise of God.
Now, to receive the fruits of the sacraments, you should be properly
disposed. At least in adults, there must be a predispositional
receptivity to receive the grace that is always available in a validly
effected sacrament. This means reception of grace via the sacraments is
not automatic. But the ex opere operato nature of the
sacraments reminds us that, while a proper disposition is necessary to
receive grace in the sacraments, it isn't the cause of that grace.
This being properly disposed is summed up by:
Latin Term
EX OPERE OPERANTIS
Definition
A term mainly applied to the good dispositions with which a
sacrament is received, to distinguish it from the ex opere operato,
which is the built-in efficacy of a sacrament properly conferred. But it
may refer to any subjective factor that at least partially determines
the amount of grace obtained by a person who performs some act of piety.
Thus in the use of sacramentals or in the gaining of indulgences, the
blessings received depend largely on the faith and love of God with
which a sacramental is employed or an indulgenced prayer or good work is
performed.
MY COMMENTS:
When we speak of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in either form, these two terms, Ex Opere Operato and Operantis are extremely important for those who are so critical of either form no matter how justified the criticism is.
If one attends Mass and only sees the flies in the healing ointment, one's ability to receive the built-in graces that come from God alone may be stifled. One's faith and love for God is necessary for meriting the grace that is present even if that grace is hidden under a bushel basket because of the manner in which the Holy Sacrifice is being celebrated.
One's critique of the Holy Sacrifice must be based upon what the Church intends for the sacrifice based upon its rubrics. To critique the OF Mass because it lacks the ethos of an EF Mass creates a situation for the person attending that Mass to undermine the graces God wishes to give that person, what God has built into that valid celebration no matter how poorly designed or executed the rubrics.
The same for the person who brings to an EF Mass the mentality of the OF Mass expecting the same. Being overly critical of its regimentation, language and the perception of its clericalism causes that person to miss out on what God intends the faithful to receive.
So this is a cautionary tale to accept the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass through the eyes of faith and allowing every valid expression of the Mass to convey what God intends for the communicant.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller has said he expects the Society of St. Pius
X, which has always opposed the Second Vatican Council's declarations on
religious freedom and ecumenism, to “unreservedly recognize” freedom of
religion as a human right, and an obligation to ecumenism. In an interview in the June edition of the German publication Herder Korrespondenz, the
prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that if
one “wants to be fully Catholic, one must recognize the Pope and the
Second Vatican Council.” Cardinal Müller said he expects a recognition of all the Council
declarations that deal with these issues, according to the interview,
reported on the Austrian Catholic website, Kathpress, May 24. His comments come after reports that the Society of St. Pius X, which
continues to oppose key teachings of the Second Vatican Council
regarding ecumenism, freedom of religion and aspects of liturgical
reform, may be close to being recognized by the Holy See.
For
the past eight years Father Angel has been the pastor of St. Anthony of
Padua’s predecessor parish—Queen of Peace in Lakeland and its
missions—which covers a large geographical area spanning initially four
and today three counties. In that role he has been the energetic,
tireless and enthusiastic shepherd, teacher, motivator and guiding force
behind what one of his parishioners called a “revival” among Catholics
there.
